


Watch it Burn and Rust

by dragon_pearl_jasmine



Category: A Painter Behind the Curtain
Genre: Angst, Forgiveness, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, MCD, Revenge, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:15:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27588017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_pearl_jasmine/pseuds/dragon_pearl_jasmine
Summary: The planted evidence was all there. An innocent man would be condemned to death and there was nothing Raymond could do about it. Again.
Relationships: Ian Sconel/Raymond
Kudos: 14





	Watch it Burn and Rust

  
  
  
The planted evidence was all there. An innocent man would be condemned to death and there was nothing Raymond could do about it. Again.  
  
“It’s easy.” Rothsildt said minutes before the hearing. The ruling could only come down one way and Raymond knew it. “I found a body to stand in for me. That’s all.”  
  
He gritted his teeth and swung his fist at Rothsildt, but his right hook was caught by two soldiers who roughly detained him.  
  
“Why,” Raymond gritted out, eyes burning cold and deadly. “Why him.”  
  
“Oh, it’s nothing personal,” Rothsildt drawled. “It’s just, with his ties to the anarchist groups and his reputation as a male whore. Well, let’s just say it’s an easy win for me. It’s a shame it has to be Ian though. I really did like the boy. Too bad he had the misfortune of meeting you.”  
  
Raymond growled and lunged for him, for all the good it would do. The soldiers’ grips tightened on his wrists. One of them kneed him in the stomach and he coughed viciously. He felt a rib crack, but that didn’t matter. None of that mattered. All that mattered was Ian. And he couldn’t even get to him. He couldn’t protect him. He couldn’t help him for the first time.  
  
“Save your breath, merchant. They’ll condemn him to death and that’ll be the end of it. You should thank your lucky stars that you’ll get out scott free thanks to him.”  
  
“No. They won’t. They’ll listen to him. He’ll change their minds and you’ll pay for this.” He spat bitterly.  
  
“That’s enough. Escort him out.”  
  
  
  
  
The courts did condemn him and Ian’s execution was set for the next morning.  
  
  
  
  
There was no chance for a goodbye. All visitors were banned from the prisoners on death row. The only person allowed back was the priest. A visit that, interestingly enough, Ian had accepted.  
  
But now it was the morning of and Raymond couldn’t do a damn thing. He’d never felt so powerless in his life, not even when he was a little boy watching his father take the noose. All that he could do was charge the stage when Ian’s turn came, and earn another vicious beating for it.  
  
Raymond was shoved face first into the rafters, his head wedged under a soldier’s knee, splinters raking his cheek. His back ached with more broken ribs. He’d landed with his face turned towards the executioner, at least. One last glimpse at the love of his life. He could barely see Ian past the tears in his eyes. Could barely see as Ian stepped up and the noose was tightened around his delicate neck.  
  
“No,” Raymond choked, struggling desperately, thrashing, but there were four soldiers and no hope. “Why?” He coughed out, blood spitting, landing in little droplets on the rafters before him.

Ian cocked his head to the side, as if considering the question. Had he heard him?  
  
“Any last words?” The hangman asked, hand ready on the lever to release the drop door.  
  
“Yes,” Ian spoke in that airy, gentle way that he always had. Maybe he was imagining it or maybe his eyes were too blurry, but Raymond thought he even saw Ian smile. Ian didn’t look his way, he couldn’t, but he straightened his back and took a deep breath.  
  
“I think, in the end, there is a God, and that God does love me. Because he finally gave me a way to pay back for everything that I owe. I can finally do something for the one that I love.”  
  
Ian’s ‘crimes’ were read along with a short scripture, the crowd jeered, and then the executioner pulled the level and Ian’s body dropped before his eyes. The gallows shook with his dead weight and with Raymond’s dry sobs.  
  
Love. What a useless emotion.  
  
  
  
  
  
When Henry and Nicholas found him, it was at the bottom of a lake.  
  
Raymond didn’t know how to swim. Despite a lifetime of trips to the ocean and the lake, he had never learned it properly. He wasn’t raised a nobleman’s son, so he didn't have the luxury of lessons as a child. And pride had kept it a secret for him as an adult.  
  
But somehow the two young men found him out. Raymond had been too much of a blabber mouth at the tavern, drunk and ranting about how his time had come How he couldn’t handle it anymore. That life without Ian was no life at all.  
  
Everything that happened between him and Ian was born in fire. It seemed fitting that it would end with water.  
  
When Henry pulled him out of the dark depths that fateful midnight, he was understandably pissed. And then Nicholas breathed new air into his lungs, saving him, he was only more upset. Because Ian’s were supposed to be the last to touch his own and Nicholas ruined even that for him.  
  
He spluttered, his body demanding more air, and the two men moved off of him. “No. Damnit. Why-”  
  
“Trust us, this is the last thing we’d like to do. But Ian would’ve wanted it,” Henry sneered. He stood and stared disdainfully down at Raymond writhing helplessly on the ground.  
  
“He gave his life for you. What a way to thank him,” Nicholas curled his lip, scrambling to his feet to join Henry.  
  
“Ian-” Raymond heaved and rolled, but a foot was pushed down on his stomach, holding him down in the dirt.  
  
“You don’t get to say his name,” Nicholas said lowly.  
  
“He would have forgiven you.”  
  
“He would have, but not us.”  
  
“Which is why you’re still alive,” Henry frowned. “Because you don’t get to die. That’s too fair. You have to stay alive.”

 _I’m so sorry, Ian. I wished I loved you from the start._ Raymond choked and dropped back against the mud. There was no way out except through. Through this life without art, without beauty. Without love.  
  
They watched Raymond struggle, roll around in the dirt like a dog. At long last, Nicholas spoke again.  
  
“Do you still believe in God, Raymond?”  
  
He got to his knees, looking up and locking eyes with Nicholas in the pale moonlight. “No. There is no God.”  
  
“I hope you’re wrong.”  
  
“Oh yeah?” Raymond sat back on his knees. Nicholas’s eyes were unreadable in the shadows.  
  
“Yeah, just for the type of people like you.”  
  
“Huh. And what’s my type of people?”  
  
Nicholas didn’t answer right away. The wind shifted and the moon passed behind a single cloud before he did.  
  
“I already told you what type you are. You’re scum.”  
  
There was a long silence. Longer than that morning Raymond watched his reason for living disappear from this earth.  
  
“C’mon, Henry. Let’s get out of here.”  
  
Their footfalls disappeared from the clearing and back down the path towards town from whence they came.  
  
Raymond should’ve known it before:  
  
There was no God.  
  
But if there was, then He hated him.  
  
He taught him love far too late.  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
